Blue-Stocking Hall, (Vol. 1 of 3)

by William Pitt Scargill

It was not in nature to resist this sally. We all laughed heartily, though I saw a responding tear glitter in my aunt's eye, and Mr. Otway impressing a parental kiss on Fanny's cheek, explained in a few words, assuring her that however he might feel undeserving of the title which she had bestowed upon him, yet, as being her gift, it was so valuable that he would not exchange the appellation of Phil. for the most beautiful name in the English language.

Fanny's gaiety was immediately restored, and as the conversation hit my fancy very much, I was glad that Mr. Otway resumed it by saying, "the reason why display of a little learning is not so common amongst men as women, is not that they are less subject to vanity than the latter, but because their vanity is differently directed. Learning being the business of all educated men, there is nothing on which to plume themselves in knowing a little Greek, Latin, and mathematics. Every school-boy does the same, and it is only pre-eminence in these studies which renders a man remarkable. Now real knowledge, extensive learning, and powerful intellect, of the highest class, preclude boasting for two reasons, first because I believe that it may be asserted of such minds, that they are most sensible to the great truths of religion, which, above all monitors with whose influence we are acquainted, inspires genuine humility; and secondly, because it is the nature of knowledge to render those who have made the greatest progress in its attainment most keenly alive to the deficiencies of all human intellect. 'A little learning is a dangerous thing,' and flippancy is ever the offspring of superficial information."

"Now unfortunately some of the female sex having just tasted of the Pierian springs, have become stimulated to intoxication, without proceeding to the sobering draught recommended by the poet. Then, as a woman's education does not usually comprehend either classical or scientific literature, a very slight proficiency in either will make a great shew, just as a solitary candle will do in a dark place; but there are silly people to be found in every country as of every age, and both sexes." "Pray then," said Emily, "would not the abuse of learning be remedied in a manner kind as well as efficient, by making knowledge fashionable, rather than by condemning half the creation to ignorance? If girls were generally allowed to acquire more information than it is customary to teach them, there would be an end of what you call blue-stockings, and women would not boast of a little reading any more than they do of drawing or music."

"You are perfectly right, Emily," answered Mr. Otway, "the best gifts may be abused, and the improper use of any good that we possess can never be considered as a sound argument for relinquishing it. Neither do men argue in this way when the question relates to money, power, rank, or any of those advantages which they desire to achieve. Now, my own opinion is, that much of the unhappiness of married life, as well as the insipidity of mixed society, results from the present style of female education. Accomplishments are ornamental, yet they are only the acanthus that decorates the pillar, not the pillar itself. The most empty mind, the worst regulated temper, may be the portion of a young lady who plays and sings like a professor, who draws and models, who can take casts, and sculpture marble. All these things, however pretty, occupy neither the highest nor the best powers of the human mind; and, generally speaking, they are pursuits which suppose exhibition. There are few who cultivate them on their own account; and thousands arrive at excellence in several branches of polite education without natural taste, merely to attain certain ends, and when they are compassed, the scaffolding is thrown aside altogether; the fingers are given a holyday, and the unfurnished understanding stands confessed in all its vacuity. If the vessel be not valuable from what it contains, it naturally follows that the external fashion will determine its estimation; and thus a short-lived grace comes to be the pearl of price; and when the bloom of youth is past, there is no fund to support the long evening of life. A sleepy animalized existence at home, or a perpetual search after excitement abroad, succeeds. Both sexes degenerate, society grows more vapid, and more vulgar, every day, till reduced to its coarse elements of mere sensual attraction, folly ends in vice, and things are worse and worse, till some new impetus arises to change the entire system. If companionship be the charm of social intercourse, why should not both sexes cultivate those qualities and attainments which, besides being most intrinsically excellent, promise durability?"

"Arthur," said my Aunt, "you must represent the world, and reply to Mr. Otway." "Well then, with deference to his opinion," said I, "let it be remembered that there is no necessary connection between the amiable qualities of heart which we admire in woman, and book knowledge. On the contrary, I should say that reading is a selfish pleasure; shut up in a library, surrounded by grammars and lexicons, people are not likely to improve their tempers half so much as in the endeavour to please by proficiency in music, dancing, drawing, sculpture, and all the list of elegant accomplishments which every mother in the fashionable world procures with the utmost anxiety for her daughters. In fact, the establishment of a girl who has no fortune, absolutely depends upon her power of attraction; and when you reflect that men seek society to unbend their thoughts, and to get rid of the studies, as well as the cares which oppress them in the several walks of busy occupation, whether in the field, or the closet, the senate, or the court, I cannot help feeling that matters are very happily adjusted in the division of labour, which the general sense of mankind has adopted, and that women have no business whatsoever with any thing but the agrémens of life, and should leave to us the whole toil of reading and thinking."

"Well I am sure," said Fanny, "the motive is so kind that the arrangement ought to be a good one. What do you think, Mamma?" "My love," answered her Mother, "I shall lie by and be a listener. The argument is in very good hands, and I shall keep my opinion in reserve, for a single combat with Arthur, when he is inclined 'to fight the battle o'er again.'"

"We will take Emily's judgment upon this question," said Mr. Otway: "Emily, what think you of the gallantry which Fanny conceives to be deserving of such praise?" "Indeed," ingenuously answered Emily, "a kind motive, I should say with Fan, is so sweet, that it inclines one to find fault with great moderation; but, however amiable the desire to save our sex all trouble, I must own that I do not at all admire the expedient, nor think that it seems to be a judicious one. Reading is a great pleasure to me, and if books were denied me, I should feel a void in my life which I do not believe it would be easy to fill; besides, the day is so long, if one rises early that I do not see why there should not be time for many things as well as music and drawing."

"Come, come," said Mr. Otway, "it is not generous to profit by the simplicity of our panegyrists. If the motive for denying, or, at least, grudging to women the advantages of a sound and a literary education, be analyzed, I fear that it will turn out but little creditable to our sex, and the proof that it is so, may rest on the circumstance that the cleverest and really best informed men are those who encourage female ambition to soar above the common standard. These men delight in superior talents, and cultivation wherever they find them. They are not afraid of rivalry, and their minds are too large to take pleasure in any supremacy which is produced by exclusion. The lazy, and the tyrannical, would fence in their privileges, and not permit to women a participation in what they choose to call their inherent rights; the former to save themselves the trouble of acquiring knowledge, and the latter because they would depress and enslave the sex to which they would allot no higher calling than that of administering to their amusement? Is not this a true bill?" I could not deny that there was some force in the statement, but urged the general voice as being considered the best criterion of what is good in itself, and then advanced the necessity of making some difference between two sets of beings destined to such dissimilar offices. "Men are born to action. They live in public, they preside in the councils of nations; they provide for the families that look up to them for protection; they labour in the field with their hands, and in the closet with their brains. When the toil of life is suspended, they desire relaxation, and to be gratified by the charms of beauty, grace, sweet music, and good manners."

"And these are all compatible with much higher and more dignified powers, and purposes," rejoined my antagonist. "Some writer, whose name I forget, has said, 'tell me your amusements, and I'll tell you what you are.' There is a great deal of wisdom in the idea, and it holds good in forming an estimate both of nations and individuals. The love of gain, the dread of poverty, desire of fame; in short, a thousand motives may, and do, constrain men to engage in pursuits which make the business of life. A set of shoemakers, or a privy council, merely as such, are brought to a level with each other, the one party as tradesmen, the other as ministers, and the only difference that we perceive in contemplating the body, in either case, resides in the superior or inferior skill of the workman or the statesman, compared with his fellows; but when the low occupation of the one, or the high employment of the other, is brought to its close, and the man retires from his labours to unbend in the enjoyment of the social hour, it is then that we find of what materials he is made."

"We will suppose first of the humble artizan, that one takes the fruit of his toil to the public-house, where it is spent in company with the idle and the vicious; that from thence he proceeds to the pugilistic ring, and gambles away the remainder of his earnings, while his mind is brutalized by the nature of the sport, and his wife and children are left to starve. Here you have no hesitation in condemning such an appropriation of time and money; nor do I believe that you would find any greater difficulty in bestowing your praise upon the industrious father who, gathering his children round the evening fire, can participate with the goodly partner of his cares in the task of rearing a young family to virtuous principles and prudent habits as his best happiness. Trust me, my young friend, that in the higher classes of society we may trace as much variety of character as in the humbler walks; and vice is both as vulgar, and unholy, when varnished over by fashion, as it is in those situations that present its deformity to view unveiled by the gloss of rank and fortune. Why should recreation be found only in the inanity of sloth, or the stimulus of dissipation? Is such recreation worthy of a rational creature? I do not mean to say that music and merriment are not very agreeable, but are these less pleasing because they are not the sole resources? Here are my dear little nurses, whose kindness during a long and painful illness I shall never forget. Do you think that I dreaded poison in my cup, because Emily can translate Lucian, and Charlotte is not perplexed by a quotation from Virgil?"